The 22 Best Orzhov Enchantments in Magic Ranked

Last updated on September 10, 2025

Etchings of the Chosen | Illustration by Chuck Lukacs

Enchantress decks that run lots of enchantments to draw cards and spew more enchantments don’t tend to support black and white, or Orzhov (), as colors. It’s the black that’s usually missing.

Orzhov enchantments are often role-players in other sorts of specific decks. That’s where a list like today’s comes in handy, because these cards may have slipped past your notice before now. But today is the day to find a hidden gem for your black and white deck!

What Are Orzhov Enchantments in MTG?

Profane Procession | Illustration by Bastien L. Deharme

Orzhov enchantments are cards with the type “enchantment” that include black and white or Orzhov hybrid mana in their costs. There are only 33 total as of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, including some traditional enchantments, some cards that flip into enchantments, an aura and a few enchantment creatures.

#22. Oath of Kaya

Is Tomik, Wielder of Law a real deck? It can’t be, right? Well, if it is, you want Oath of Kaya for it, I’m sure.

#21. Profane Procession / Tomb of the Dusk Rose

You don’t have to tell me that an 8-mana removal spell is bad, especially in Commander. And you also don’t have to tell me that spending 10 mana to do it twice more isn’t much better. But I can’t stop playing Profane Procession / Tomb of the Dusk Rose! It’s a six-for-one!

Don’t worry. The above paragraph is the most boomer thing I have to say today.

#20. Necromancer’s Covenant

6 mana gets you a powerful hard-to-cast graveyard-hate effect for your Varina, Lich Queen deck. But that mana is real, so usually cut Necromancer's Covenant from that deck.

#19. Edge of the Divinity

Edge of the Divinity is kind of sick with Killian, Ink Duelist. Okay. Moving on….

#18. Doom Foretold

Wicked in its Standard, Doom Foretold doesn’t make quite as big an impact in older formats or in EDH, although it’s terrific in a Ghen, Arcanum Weaver deck.

#17. Firja’s Retribution

Firja's Retribution is one of the better cards for an angels commander that uses these colors, but it’s pointless in every other deck. Those are hard to rank!

#16. Knights’ Charge

Knights' Charge is one of the better enchantments in an Orzhov knights deck that uses these colors, but it’s pointless in every other deck. Those are hard to rank!

#15. The Kenriths' Royal Funeral

This is probably a 4-mana draw-two or -three on, say, turn 5, in most legends decks, and maybe you get more in the late game. Cutting 2 off the cost of legends doesn't seem like quite enough to take a turn off for, which means you need to be churning legends into your graveyard to make The Kenriths' Royal Funeral work.

#14. Vault 11: Voter's Dilemma

This is a nice flavor win for Vault 11 in Fallout: New Vegas. Does three tokens and then the chance to destroy creatures work? Vault 11: Voter's Dilemma is a bit too janky for the usually high-powered Tivit, Seller of Secrets, which would make interesting use of this card. The table typically gangs up and kills something scary, as no one is incentivized to spread the votes equally, which is carnage. That’s okay.

The real fun is blinking this enchantment.

#13. Dramatic Finale

Flavor fail! If Dramatic Finale had flash, it would be a flavor win and a much better card. As it is, 4 mana for this is a tough ask. But under an Esper commander that reliably gives this card flash with cards like Emergence Zone, Borne Upon a Wind, Heliod, the Radiant Dawn / Heliod, the Warped Eclipse, Leyline of Anticipation, Tidal Barracuda, and Vedalken Orrery, this card really starts looking good. You’ll play all those cards in a deck already, say in Saruman of Many Colors, and this is just another thing to consider if you’re in that space.

#12. Underworld Coinsmith

This human cleric‘s lifegain trigger is always welcome in enchantment decks, and Underworld Coinsmith is handy if you have two colored mana lying around.

#11. Invasion of Tolvada / The Broken Sky

5-mana reanimation is pretty standard, if underwhelming. Transforming Invasion of Tolvada into The Broken Sky seems worth it if you’re spewing tokens, especially fliers. So, King of the Oathbreakers?

#10. Campaign of Vengeance

This is a nice effect. Unfortunately, it’s 5 mana. There's a place for this in Isshin, Two Heavens as One and Commissar Severina Raine, but even then, 5 mana's a lot for Campaign of Vengeance.

#9. Ethereal Absolution

Man, this used to seem busted, way back in… 2019! So, yeah. Power creep, eh?

Seriously, there were control decks that just looked to survive to get to Ethereal Absolution, at least in those early days on the MTG Arena ladder. Now I just look at that casting cost and shrug.

Sure, this is hilarious with Humility, Living Plane and those kinds of things, and having the -1/-1 effect on a hard-to-remove permanent that kind of blanks tokens decks is pretty nice. But 6 is a lot of mana.

#8. Debtors' Knell

The fact that just playing removal to get to Virtue of Persistence works as a strategy in Arena Standard best-of-one means that Debtors' Knell is theoretically viable. But the Orzhov colors and lack of a removal mode (unlike the adventure mode of Virtue of Persistence) is pretty significant. This feels too slow, which I will keep saying until I lose to it.

#7. Spirit-Sister's Call

This is a potentially powerful card that folks just didn’t seem to figure out how to build around. Artifact tokens? Enchantment tokens like role tokens? Creature tokens? There’s huge value here, but Standard has so many easier-to-use powerful things that I think this fell off the design radar for folks. In EDH I can see plenty of builds where Spirit-Sister's Call does massive work. An underappreciated gem.

#6. Hidden Stockpile

Although Hidden Stockpile isn’t a free sacrifice outlet for your aristocrats shenanigans, it’s a cheap and reliable one, it lets you scry, and, like Oni-Cult Anvil, it makes replacement artifact creature tokens, which makes a lot of useful triggers as it moves through the cycle. It doesn’t seem to find its way into most Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim decks, so it’s not efficient enough to be busted, but it’s a definite include if you’re playing Minthara, Merciless Soul, and I love it in my Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter deck!

#5. Feast of the Victorious Dead

Feast of the Victorious Dead seems better than Hidden Stockpile in sac decks. The lifegain trigger is sick with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose style payoffs, and dishing out +1/+1 counters isn’t nothing. All for 2 mana.

#4. Life Insurance

Extort is a pesky mechanic that can be a useful part of various combos in EDH. At 5 mana, Life Insurance is pretty expensive compared to the GOAT, Blind Obedience, but that Treasure token really does help out, especially with various life gain and drain infinite combos, specifically the kinds that need to pay to get something like a Reassembling Skeleton back out of the graveyard. I can easily see something getting printed that busts this card in half! Outlaw commander Vihaan, Goldwaker was almost that card. Almost.

#3. Athreos, Shroud-Veiled

An interesting, if unpopular Orzhov commander, Athreos, Shroud-Veiled excels in decks that care about enchantment creatures, historic spells, and legends, so Zur, Eternal Schemer, Moira and Teshar, and Ratadrabik of Urborg, specifically. Ratadrabik hints at the other use: graveyard recursion. 6 mana is quite a lot for this, but you get a lot on an indestructible body for that.

#2. Athreos, God of Passage

Athreos, God of Passage can be oppressive in the same kind of decks the Shroud-Veiled variant can be used, but at 3 mana it just does a whole lot more. The most obnoxious use is as an Orzhov commander of a Shadowborn Apostle list. You can imagine how that goes. In addition to finding your Razaketh, the Foulblooded, you can always grab an Edgewalker in these colors for max annoyance. More fun for a deck that’s tutoring like crazy are Children of Korlis, Rotlung Reanimator, and of course Zulaport Cutthroat.

#1. Etchings of the Chosen

A 3-mana anthem is likely no longer good enough. But being able to sac a minion to save a commander or key creature with a “message for you, sir” is nice. Indestructible ain’t what it used to be, but in combat, it still is. Etchings of the Chosen seems fine for a typal deck in these colors, which basically means vampires, humans, or knights.

Best Orzhov Enchantments Payoffs

Many of these Orzhov enchantments are very specific build-arounds, but there are a few general payoffs.

A few cards here really support specific decks, like angels or knights or legends or even enchantment creatures. That makes it easy to slip this in highly synergistic decks instead of random midrange piles.

It’s not just the Athreos’s, either! There are a number of cards here that recur things from the graveyard. And there are also cards that support sacrifice as a theme. You put those together and you’ve got a bit of an engine in the classic color pair for sacrifice!

Wrap Up

 Spirit-Sister's Call | Illustration by Dominik Mayer

This list has plenty of underutilized gems for decks that extend the Orzhov colors and especially for Mardu commanders, Abzan commanders, and Esper commanders. A lot of these cards didn’t see heavy play in their Standard environments and may be a bit forgotten.

The good news is that a lot of these Orzhov enchantments are reasonably budget-friendly on the secondary market in case you found something awesome. Did you? Let us know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks, and happy brewing!